I hear the same complaint all the time: It just costs too much to go to a concert these days. I feel your pain. Yet, donâ€™t let $150 Bon Jovi tickets scare you away from going to hear live music. It doesnâ€™t have to cost an arm and a leg to get an earful of music.

If you know where to look, you can even get your fix for free.

Beginning May 3, and continuing through Oct. 26, the place to look is Yerba Buena Gardens in downtown San Francisco. The schedule for the 2008 Yerba Buena Gardens Festival has recently been announced and it features more than 100 events _ all of which are free to the public.

The May 3 kick-off concert featuring Rupa and the April Fishes should be one of the festivalâ€™s top offerings. The Bay Area band delivers an intoxicating mix of international flavors, from tango and bossa nova to gypsy grooves and European-style hot jazz, and is led by Rupa Marya, a doctor of internal medicine at UCSF.

Over the years, Bay Area native Marya has worked with such noted musicians as jazz bassist/composer Marcus Shelby (who appears on the Fishes’ debut album â€œExtraordinary Renditionâ€), Michael Franti & Spearhead, Susana Baca, Aterciopelados and Rodrigo y Gabriela. Her band was recently signed by acclaimed world music label Cumbancha.

Looking beyond the Rupa and the April Fishes concert, which will run 1 to 3 p.m., here are some of the other festival highlights:

Los Vasallos del Sol + Venezuelan Music Project, 1-3 p.m. May 10

Omar Sosaâ€™s Afreecanos Quintet, 1-2:30 p.m. June 8

Patrick Ball, 12:30-1:30pm July 10

Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, 1-2:30 p.m. July 12

Le Jazz Hot, 12:30-1:30 p.m. July 31

Afro Soloâ€™s Jazz in the Gardens, 1-3 p.m. August 2

Tom Rigney & Flambeau, 1-2:30pm August 23

Yerba Buena Gardens is located between Mission and Howard streets and 3rd and 4th streets. For more information, call (415) 543-1718 or visit www.ybgf.org.

Saying goodbye to a legend
The music world has lost another truly great one _ Israel “Cachao” LÃ³pez. The Cuban mambo master, who made his mark as a bassist, bandleader and composer, died March 22 in a Miami-area hospital from complications resulting from kidney failure. He was 89.

The Grammy-winning musician, who was known simply by â€œCachao,â€ will be remembered for pioneering the mambo in Cuba in the â€˜30s and then helping to popularize the style in the United States in the â€˜50s.

Cachao was widely regarded as one of the most significant figures in Cuban music history. He also had an immeasurable impact on other styles of music. I found a very interesting quote about the bassist, from Cuban music historian Ned Sublette, on Wikipedia.com. Sublette ranked Cachao as arguably the single most important bassist in 20th century popular music due to his influence on the bass lines of American R&B music, “which have become such a part of the environment that we don’t even think where they came from.â€

I first learned of Cachaoâ€™s death from John Santos. The East Bay percussionist sent out an e-mail to let the local Latin jazz community know of the loss. Santos has a two-night stand, April 28 and 29, scheduled for Yoshiâ€™s in San Francisco and was greatly looking forward to having Cachao sit in with his group.

Now, the occasion serves as another sad reminder of how important it is to see _ and honor _ these music legends when we get the chance. The great ones like Cachao, unfortunately, arenâ€™t around forever. Given what I know about Santos, a man whose heart is as big as his talent, I expect these shows to serve as moving tributes to the Cuban maestro. For show information, call 415-655-5600 or visit www.yoshis.com.

To learn more about the life and music of this mambo titan, fans should catch the new documentary â€œCachao: Uno Mas.â€ The 68-minute film was produced by the DocFilm Institute of San Francisco State University (my alma mater) and features live concert footage as well as interviews with such admirers as Santos and film star Andy Garcia.

â€œCachao: Uno Masâ€ will be shown as part of the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival at 6:30 p.m. April 28 and 1:15 p.m. May 2 at the Sundance Cinemas Kabuki. For more film fest info, call 925-866-9559 or visit www.sfiff.org.

Hollywood North?
The old strategy for breaking into the movie biz was to sit at some bus stop in Hollywood and hope that someone â€œdiscoversâ€ you. Iâ€™m guessing thatâ€™s how such talents as Tara Reid and Nicole Richie got their first breaks.

The new strategy, however, is to first make a mark on the Bay Area jazz scene.

In my last column, I reported that the new Jason Statham film â€œThe Bank Jobâ€ features a version of the Bobby Sharp tune â€œUnchain My Heartâ€ sung by Alamedaâ€™s own Natasha Miller. Now comes the news that Oakland R&B/jazz vocalist Ledisi has scored two high-profile film gigs.

The singer, who lost to Amy Winehouse in the one-sided race for the Best New Artist Grammy back in February, has a bit role in the George Clooney football comedy â€œLeatherheads.â€ In the film, Ledisi plays a blues singer performing at a 1920s-era speakeasy _ and Iâ€™m predicting that she does a knockout job in the role. â€œLeatherheadsâ€ opens at local theaters today.

Ledisi fans should also catch the new Tyler Perry comedy, â€œMeet the Browns,â€ which opened late last month. The singerâ€™s R&B hit â€œAlrightâ€ is featured in the film as well as on the soundtrack.

With Miller and Ledisi getting some major Hollywood love, I have to wonder who will be the next person from the local music scene to get his or her big-screen break? If some hot-shot producer is looking to cast a jazz music critic in an upcoming blockbuster, all I can say is that Iâ€™m ready for my close-up.

All of those fine folks will be honored in ceremonious style on March 29 at the Marriott Oakland City Center, 1001 Broadway. The main event runs from 7 to 11 p.m., immediately followed by an after-party (where all the really fun stuff will happen).

The Bay Area Blues Society, which is captained by the ever-cheery Ronnie Stewart, gives out dozens of trophies during the award show portion of the event. The categories range from the expected, like male and female blues vocalists of the year, to such relatively novel ones as Blues Bartender of the Year. Here is a sampling of this yearâ€™s batch of winners:

Blues Female Vocalist of the Year: Big Time Sarah
Blues Male Vocalist of the Year: Taildragger
Jazz Group of the Year: Carl Lockett Trio
R&B Female Vocalist of the Year: Sharon Jones
R&B Male Vocalist of the Year: Tommy Nunnelly
Blues Guitar of the Year: Larry Noble Sr.
Blues Drummer of the Year: Donny Kountz
Gospel Group of the Year: Edwin Hawkins & the Love Center Choir
Blues Band of the Year: Dynamic 4

I probably donâ€™t have to underscore how important it is for us to honor our local blues legends as well as the blues soldiers who are slugging it out on a nightly basis in Bay Area clubs _ if we donâ€™t, who will? Thus, I highly recommend that you make it out to this yearâ€™s West Coast Blues Hall of Fame and Award Show. Tickets are $30 in advance; $35 at the door. For more information, call 510-836-2227 or visit www.bayareabluessociety.net.

Great grapes!
For the past three Memorial Day weekends, Iâ€™ve journeyed up to Wine Country for the Sonoma Jazz + festival. The fact that Iâ€™m planning to make it four years in a row should tell you everything you really need to know about this world-class fest.

The headliners for the 2008 event are Kool and the Gang (May 22), Herbie Hancock (May 23), Diana Krall (May 24) and Bonnie Raitt (May 25). Two of the four _ Krall and Hancock _ are veterans of the event, yet they remain the best bets for the festival.

By my rough calculations, Krall is making her 745,423rd NorCal appearance in the last 12 months. Seeing her live, however, just doesnâ€™t get old for this jazz fan. Sheâ€™s as complete a package as there is in the jazz game _ and thatâ€™s just her musical side. The fact that sheâ€™s incredibly easy on the eyes doesnâ€™t hurt matters.

Hancock comes to Sonoma from â€œon top of the world, ma!â€ The legendary pianist-composer shocked the globe when his most recent CD, â€œRiver: The Joni Letters,â€ beat out heavily favored offerings from Amy Winehouse and Kanye West to win Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards last month. (Shameless self-promotion time: I picked Hancock to win the award in my Grammy preview. I got that one right, but most of the others wrong. In fact, my dog Autumn got more right than I did.)

The event will also once again feature its popular daytime Wine and Song component, where smaller acts perform (and local wineries serve) at intimate venues in downtown Sonoma. Some thoroughly believe that this is the best part of the festival. I guess it depends on how much you dig the vino. Wine and Song is scheduled for May 24 and 25.

Memorial Day Weekend, of course, is still months away. Iâ€™m bringing the festival up now because it requires some advance planning, especially if you plan to stay in Sonoma. Get your room quick because they go fast.

Good `Jobâ€™
Congratulations to Alamedaâ€™s own vocal sensation Natasha Miller, whose version of the Bobby Sharp tune â€œUnchain My Heartâ€ is featured in the new Jason Statham film â€œThe Bank Job.â€

Iâ€™ve yet to see this movie _ and will probably wait until it gets to Netflix before doing so. Yet, from what I understand thereâ€™s a scene where a lounge singer is supposed to be crooning the song, which was originally made famous by the great Ray Charles. We see the starletâ€™s lips moving, but what we hear is actually Millerâ€™s voice.

Thatâ€™s a pretty cool turn of events for this local vocalist, who has long been deserving of wider recognition. To learn more about Ms. Miller, visit her website at www.natashamillerweb.com.

Paint the town
Iâ€™m hardly an impartial judge in this case, but I rank James Gayles _ an illustrator for this newspaper _ as one of the best graphic artists in the business. Iâ€™ve been fortunate to have him dress up a number of my stories and those are clips I hold onto.

Gayles is currently showing some of his new works in an exhibit called â€œJazz Masters: Bay Area Treasures.â€ The show features Gaylesâ€™ paintings of such local jazz musicians as Marcus Shelby and Joshua Redman and continues through April 13 at Swarm Gallery, 560 Second St., Oakland. Call 510-839-2787 or visit www.swarmstudios.net.